Earliest I’ve left home in a 2 weeks, 10:30am! First stop, pancakes!! I know I know, I said last night I wont but that was 12hrs ago! My friend took a day off to show me around, the first restaurant didn’t have pancakes as it wasn’t the weekend (I thought Americans ate pancakes everyday??) so we went to a diner coz they would surely have some and they did! Phew. I ordered pancakes with butter and syrup with crispy bacon. (Meat and sugary syrup don’t go together in my head and so I’ve always wanted to know what the fuss was all about).
I spread butter on the pancakes, drenched them (and the bacon) in syrup and tucked in. wow. now I get it. It was good, and I loved the contrast of the salty crispy bacon with the soft and sweet pancakes. It was the perfect “first morning” in New York. But I could not eat them all. 2 of those 3 pancakes and I’d had enough and I also wanted to avoid another food coma after the last one only 12hrs ago.
Anyways, off to Central park. So bit of a background, visiting USA was never on my list, this place never really fascinated me as much. I am only here to see my closest friends and my cousins and they just happened to be living in Boston, New York and Toronto. So I will do some sight-seeing while I am here. And even though I’ve heard of some landmarks in these cities I don’t always know what they are. Back to central park, I asked my friend if Central Park was indeed just a park. Stupid question you say and that’s what my friend thought as well. But in my defense England has “Center Parcs” which is set in beautiful forests and you can rent a lodge for a vacation and they offer around 200 indoor and outdoor sports. And given that I had not read up anything on NYC I think it was a valid question. So yes, it was just a park, a really big park set across 1.2square miles, situated in the centre of Manhattan, apparently offering more than 400 tourist attractions. Sweet.
We decided, or my friend did, to walk from the centre of the park going towards the southern end. It was cold (at least it wasn’t that windy) but we also had bright sunshine. So we ambled on, catching up on what we’ve been upto, taking pictures and seeing the Shakespeare Garden, the Belvedere Castle, a sculpture of Alice in Wonderland and the Bethesda fountain which had no water coz the temperature was below 0.
My friend is good in photography, something I didn’t know, so he explained to me about the settings on my camera and what they mean and how to use them together to take pictures! I am trying to get into photography so it was great to get some tips from my friend.
Anyways, after 2hrs outside I couldn’t feel my toes again (seriously) and taking lots of pictures meant my hands were frozen too (as they weren’t hidden in the pocket of my jacket). So we went for a quick coffee and éclair and when we were ready (or thawed enough) we went for a walk along the High Line which is a 1.45mile linear park built on a disused section of a railway track. It was a good walk but the highline would have been good in the summer when the plants were still green and it wouldn’t be so cold. Or perhaps at night when you could see the NYC skyline. But after another 45mins of walk and more photography we decided to head back home. On the way to the train station my friend pointed out the Madison Square Garden and I was like, “Is that the building where Godzilla had created his nest?!”. My friend decided to be nice to me and said that was correct. He then pointed out the Empire State building and before I could say anything he said that’s the building the King Kong climbed! I knew that. I wasn’t as ignorant about New York as I thought! I was told the real significance of these buildings later. Lol.
We had had a long day and the pancake breakfast kept us going for more than 6hrs so we decided to treat ourselves with some pizza in the evening while watching The Holiday.
Yaawwnn. It was time to hit the bed!
Hungryrover 